Notification subscriptions let users control which emails they receive from ServiceNow instead of getting blasted with everything. You'll enable subscription settings on your notifications and show users where to manage their preferences.
Why notification subscriptions exist
Without subscriptions, every notification you create sends to every targeted user — whether they want it or not. Users get overwhelmed by irrelevant emails and start ignoring all ServiceNow notifications, including the critical ones. Platform admins get ticket after ticket asking to remove people from notification lists, or worse, users create email rules that dump everything from ServiceNow into trash. The people managing the platform — admins and developers — end up manually managing distribution lists instead of building useful automation.
How notification subscriptions work
A subscription-enabled notification behaves differently than a standard one. When you check 'Subscribable' on a notification record, ServiceNow adds that notification to users' preference pages and only sends it to people who've opted in. Users see all subscribable notifications in their profile and can toggle them on or off. You can also mark notifications as mandatory — these appear in user preferences but can't be disabled, which is perfect for critical system alerts. Admins can override individual user preferences when needed.
Taking notification subscriptions further
Once basic subscriptions work, the useful enhancements are grouping related notifications into categories so users don't see dozens of individual toggles, setting up default subscription states for new users based on their roles, and creating admin dashboards to see subscription patterns across your user base. Production-quality subscription management includes periodic cleanup of unused notifications, clear naming conventions so users understand what they're opting into, and automated subscription management based on group membership or role changes.
Before you start
- •notification_admin or admin role
- •Existing notification record to modify
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Step by step
Open your notification record
Navigate to System Notification > Email > Notifications and open the notification you want to make subscribable. The notification needs to be active and have proper Who will receive settings already configured — subscriptions layer on top of your existing notification logic.
Enable subscription settings
Check the 'Subscribable' checkbox in the notification record. This makes the notification appear in user preference pages. If this notification is critical and users shouldn't be able to opt out, also check 'Mandatory' — users will see it in their preferences but the toggle will be disabled.
Mandatory notifications still show in user preferences — they just can't be turned off.
Set the subscription category
Fill in the 'Category' field with a logical grouping name like 'Incident Updates' or 'Approval Requests'. Users see notifications grouped by category in their preferences, so use consistent naming across related notifications. If you leave this blank, the notification appears in an 'Uncategorized' group.
Configure default subscription state
Set 'Subscribed by default' to true if you want new users automatically opted into this notification, or false if it should be opt-in only. This only affects new user accounts — existing users keep their current settings. Save the notification record.
Test user preference access
Impersonate a target user and navigate to their profile (click their avatar, then Profile). Look for the 'Notification Preferences' related list or tab. Your notification should appear in the category you specified with a toggle switch users can control.
Verify notification behavior
Trigger your notification with the test user opted in, then opt them out and trigger it again. The notification should only send when the user has subscribed. Check the email logs in System Logs > Email to confirm the filtering worked.
Set up admin override capability
Navigate to User Administration > Users, open a user record, and find their 'Notification Subscriptions' related list. Admins can override individual user preferences here by adding or removing subscription records manually. This is useful for critical notifications that specific users must receive regardless of their preferences.
Best practices
Don't make every notification subscribable — keep critical system notifications like password resets and security alerts as standard notifications that always send.
Use consistent category names across all your notifications so users don't see fragmented groupings like 'Incident Alerts', 'Incident Updates', and 'Incidents' as separate categories.
Set 'Subscribed by default' to true for notifications users probably want, but false for high-volume or specialized notifications that should be opt-in only.
Test subscription behavior thoroughly — subscribable notifications that still send to unsubscribed users indicate problems with your notification conditions or user targeting logic.
Create a process for regular cleanup of unused subscribable notifications since they clutter user preference pages and make it harder for users to find the settings they actually care about.
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